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AIDS

The rate of new HIV infections has decreased dramatically in the past decade, but millions of people who are infected remain untreated. Pioneering HIV/AIDS researcher Julio Montaner argues that if those people get the treatment they need, transmission of the virus can be stopped.

Thousands of people in BC — including as many as 200 on Vancouver Island — are infected with HIV and don’t know it. The BC Ministry of Health is concerned that about 3,500 people unaware they have the virus might infect others and delay their own treatment.

Vancouver was selected last week to host the 8th International AIDS Society (IAS) conference on HIV pathogenesis, treatment and prevention in 2015. The IAS conference brings together scientists, doctors, public health experts and community leaders to examine developments in HIV/AIDS science and explore applications for new discoveries.

British Columbian researchers have found that women with HIV-AIDS are more likely than men to receive sub-standard care and treatment, putting them at higher risk of death or transmission to others. The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS conducted two studies to try to find out why the number of new cases of HIV-AIDS among women has been trending upwards.

When a U.S. doctor at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre announced she appeared to have cured a baby of the HIV virus, headlines roared that it could be a major discovery. However, Dr. Julio Montaner, the Director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said in an interview with Yahoo! Canada News that it’s too soon to declare the baby cured of the virus and there isn’t enough research to call the case a breakthrough.